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Seth Leibsohn’s “conversion” begins after the death of Dagny, not with a decision to replace his dog. When a striped mother cat and her kittens turn up in his backyard, he starts putting out food and water—and finds himself caring for more cats than he expected while still resisting the label “cat guy.”
In his first-person essay “The Reluctant Conversion of a Committed Dog Guy,” published by Catster on October 1, 2026, Seth Leibsohn tells a story about grief, a backyard group of cats, and the gap between how he sees himself and what he does. It is a humorous personal account, not a guide to adopting or caring for cats.
Grief leaves a space where another dog once seemed impossible
Leibsohn begins as a committed dog person, recalling dogs from childhood and adulthood, including Lassie and Dagny. After Dagny dies, he believes he cannot have another dog. The essay connects that loss to the way he remembers his father, a physician, caring for Lassie near the end of her life. His father’s lesson was: “It’s okay for them to be sick and dying on their own time, just so long as they are not in pain.” Leibsohn says he drew on that understanding when Dagny was dying.
The memory gives the essay’s shift its emotional context: caring for cats does not erase his attachment to dogs or resolve his grief. It begins as a response to animals that arrive in his yard.
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A mother cat and kittens change the routine
Leibsohn notices a striped mother cat and her kittens in his backyard. Friends Gay and Hugh encourage him to put out food and water, and one friend reinforces the idea that feeding the animals is a humane responsibility. He starts doing it, naming cats Danielle, Alonzo, and Aloysios as the circle of visitors grows.
He also frames the routine through his own understanding of a Jewish religious obligation to feed one’s animals before oneself, connecting it to a Talmudic interpretation of Deuteronomy and a Hasidic tale. That is Leibsohn’s personal framing in the essay; the piece does not independently document or explain those religious sources.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.He keeps resisting the “cat guy” label
The humor comes from the contrast between Leibsohn’s dog-person identity and the practical fact that he is buying cat food as more cats appear. He jokes about trying to draw a line between feeding the animals and becoming one of them: he was “a guy with three feral cats.” The joke does not turn into a claim that he has adopted a cat indoors; the story is about feeding cats who come to his yard.
Even as the food supply and the neighborhood cat population seem to expand, Leibsohn remains playfully reluctant to admit the change to his dog-loving community. The essay’s “conversion” is less a formal change of allegiance than a series of ordinary acts of care.
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- Book: the big book of tricks for the best dog ever: a step-by-step guide to 118 amazing tricks and stunts
- Language: english
- Binding: paperback
What the essay is—and isn’t
- It is: a first-person, humorous reflection on loss, animal care, and an identity that proves less fixed than the narrator expects.
- It isn’t: a cat-care manual, a report on feral-cat management, a pet-food review, or a story about replacing Dagny with a new pet.
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